By Carole FréchetteTranslated by John MurrellDirected by Lise Ann JohnsonPresented by the GCTCPresented in English.

While attending a conference in the Middle East, Helen suddenly realizes she has lost her pearl necklace, and sets out to track it down. A taxi driver named Nabil becomes her guide and her defender on a wild ride through sweltering, chaotic streets and tumbledown neighbourhoods. The journey brings Helen into contact with the ravaged city’s inhabitants, whose suffering makes her own distress seem laughable.

Carole Fréchette, playwright

Carole Fréchette has been a force in Quebec theatre for over 25 years. Her work has been produced in Canada, France, Belgium, Lebanon, Romania and Mexico. She won the 1995 Governor General’s Award for her play Les quatre morts de Marie (The Four Lives of Marie) and the 1998 Floyd Chalmers Award for the same play translated into English. She then received Governor General’s Award nominations for La peau d’Élisa (Elisa’s Skin) in 1998 and Les sept jours de Simon Labrosse (Seven Days in the Life of Simon Labrosse) in 1999. Carole Fréchette won the 2002 Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize, Canada’s most prestigious theatre award. English translations by John Murrell of three of her plays were published under the title Three Plays by Playwrights Canada Press, Toronto: The Four Lives of Marie, Seven Days in the Life of Simon Labrosse, and Élisa's Skin.